Black Lips guitarist clarifies criticism of Drake and Lorde

Cole Alexander came under criticism of his own following outspoken comments

Press

Black Lips member Cole Alexander has clarified recent critical remarks he made about Drake and Lorde.

Alexander (pictured above, second from left) described Lorde as “mediocre” and Drake as “fake” in a recent interview, stating that neither artists sounded to him like they had endured the requisite struggles in life in order to write the lyrics that they do. Describing his love of “evil” and “ghetto” rap music led some hip-hop fans to take the guitarist’s statement as being racist.

Now Alexander has offered further clarification on his comments to Creative Loafing, saying you don’t have to be black to be ghetto and that he likes his rock music “evil” too.

“I didn’t realise my detractors held the stereotype that rap is simply a black thing. That ignorance is just a black thing,” states Alexander. “I never got that memo. There are plenty of white rappers on the scene singing dumb shit and I love it. Really, trap is just my preference in hip-hop. I don’t completely dislike conscious rap. We had the GZA from the Wu-Tang lay a verse on one of our tracks. He is, in my book, one of the greatest lyrically conscious rappers of our time. I don’t think he would fuck with us if he felt I was racist. I also like my rock dumb and evil as well. Just my opinion.”

Black Lips recently released their latest album ‘Underneath The Rainbow’ and told NME that making it was like “training to be a Navy Seal”. Bassist Jared Swilley made the comments, saying: “In the music world, this band is like [US counter-terrorist unit] Seal Team Six. When the shit hits the fan, we’re the first response team.” Swilley also said of the album: “It sounds like the Fonz fucking a monkey while riding a motorcycle into the sun.”